


Blood on Your Face

by Ghostinthehouse



Series: Ficlet Omens [7]
Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-08
Updated: 2019-08-08
Packaged: 2020-08-12 01:08:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20163172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ghostinthehouse/pseuds/Ghostinthehouse
Summary: Nine battles Warlock Dowling never fought (but might have)





	Blood on Your Face

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from Queen's "We will rock you"

9\. He is 97, and a week ago he saw the last of his birth children safely into care. There are others, of course, children of his heart and just as important, coming in and out of his life, but for once there are only two other people in his room. He smiles at them, dark and bright, day and night, who taught him everything he ever needed to build the life he's had and when he closes his eyes for the last time, it's to the soft strains of a childhood lullaby.

Millions mourn for the mild-mannered man who taught them to believe, and to love, and to stand up for the things that matter most.

8\. He is 71, and a final battle is on its way. All of Heaven and all of Hell wait on the battlefield, and for all some claim he is too old to fight, he goes anyway, calling all who will to stand with him. He carries an old sword, and a mind forged by the fires of both his opponents.

He stands in the ranks of humanity behind an angel and a demon who chose the world and each other, and he does not back down.

7\. He is 69, and sickening in a long illness that resists all cures. He continues to work, looking to the future rolling in and not the past that closes in with every moment.

He cannot fight Death forever, but he wins a reprieve. He'll be left alone, for a while.

6\. He is 57, and the clean up of the world is almost over. He's never been afraid to step in and help with the dirtiest work, and his actions draw others to join him, like moths to a lighted window. There will always be new battles to fight on this front, but he has been and will be stepping up all his life.

He stoops to remove the blackened residue, and refuses to let anyone crown him.

5\. He is 42, and the woman who cracks the answer to world hunger comes to him first. People know him, and they look to him for answers he is never quite sure how to give. It's a different hunger, this hunger for knowledge, but he remembers that his Nanny never turned any question away and he follows her example.

It is on balance, he believes, as he takes up this new fight against the rich who profit from hunger, simply that all knowledge is worth the price.

4\. He is 38, and they call him War for the irony of it. He rides a bike that he calls Kindness, and he will take it anywhere with gentle words and unbending courtesy. If an angel and a demon, hereditary enemies, can come to love each other, he believes humanity can do the same.

He will never give up the fight for peace.

3\. He is 20, and his plane has been hijacked for a killing plunge. He hears his nanny's voice reminding him to lead his forces, and when the passengers choose to fight back, he is the first to stand.

He has no weapons, but a Queen CD shimmers in his hand like a flaming sword as he charges.

2\. He is 15, and his heart has been broken for the first time. He could change things so it wasn't, he knows how, he thinks, but it wouldn't be right. Love means letting go too, not controlling everything, so he opens his hands and his heart and lets the other boy fly free wherever he needs to go.

And afterwards, he stands quietly and fights back the tears that are left for him.

1\. He is 11, and he sees the true forms of his Nanny and Brother Francis for the first time, as they stand behind him. Another angel and demon stand before him, demanding that he start Armageddon, and voices clamour in his head to echo them. He takes a breath and straightens his spine as he has been taught, and steps back to stand between the two who raised him. He notices how their eyes meet above his head in grieving farewell and comes to his decision. It's surprisingly easy. All they ever wanted was to be together. All they ever did was love, him and humanity both. All he wants is for them to be happy.

He lifts his chin and bares all his teeth and cries in a voice that resounds across all the worlds, "No!"


End file.
